It was love at first sight. We are inseparable. He is never more then 10 metres from me. We come as a two for one package… Yes I am talking about my mobile phone. I’m at the hairdressers writing this post, passing time by scrolling through my Instagram feed and taking a few too many selfies.

The mobile phone has allowed private conversation to enter the public arena. Previously the home telephone meant conversations were held in private but now we have people yelling down their phone in a quiet library. Having their headphones up extremely loud in quiet places. People ignoring friends whilst out for lunch to check social media and what scares me the most is that people are taking selfies whilst driving. These are a few things that annoy me about ‘others’ using mobile phones in public places, which lead me to question, what is the mobile phone ethic?

We can see that society is somewhat trying to fight back the use of mobiles by eliciting rules such as the obvious yet always broken, ‘no texting and driving’. Locally, City Rail trains now have a quiet carriage where they discourage the use of mobile phones which must be on silent and you can not use head phones. The only way to police this issue is through the passengers themselves. Surprisingly I have witnessed Grandpa telling young loud teens to leave the carriage (Go Gramps!).

The Selfie has become one of the most ubiquitous social trends today. Everyone is talking about it and everyone is taking them. I’m embarrassed to admit that I have already taken 5 selfies today and its only 3.16pm. When we think back a few years when MySpace was the ‘it place’ for social media gatherings, the reflective ‘mirror’ selfie was the latest trend. Convergence, I believe, is primarily to blame in the rise of the trend as the front camera on smartphones now allow you to take selfies indiscreetly. Does this make it more acceptable to take selfies if it’s less noticeable?

Now I know this post is extremely ironic, as I engage in the act daily but I still think it’s quite stupid idea as a whole, especially when you give a child (or an idiotic adult) technology like an iPhone and Snapchat. Goofy, solemn, raunchy – selfies take many forms, but they’re not all harmless (Wise 2013). The selfie is now causing more harm than good says Wise, who states that selfies and sexting – the act of sending explicit messages via text, go hand in hand. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegal insists sexting isn’t the main draw for the app, but with photos that self-destruct; Snapchat sees a lot of raunchy materials exchanged (Wise 2013). What many don’t understand (or if they do, take the gamble) is that there are many way to permanently save the photo, which leads to future consequences.

From this blog post I hope that you take away, that a once harmless private image can become public and come back to haunt you in the future. Employees will not hire someone who has a naked selfie floating around the Internet.